Honey is regurgitated stomach contents of bees. Bees feed on the sugar containing nectar of flowers and, in turn, carry pollen from plant to plant to facilitate reproduction. The honey allows storage of the sugars in the hive.

Pollen allergy is generally caused by plants which depend on the wind for reproduction, rahter than insects. Windborne pollen is much smaller than that of plants dependent on bee pollination. Honey contains various ingredients, including pollen allergens and components of honeybees. The pollen in local honey, however, does not usually contain significant pollens that cause most people problems like grass or ragweed since these plants are wind-pollinated.

In order to prove that a therapy works, it must be compared to placebo. There is one well-designed study comparing two different types of honey (locally-produced and nationally-produced) against placebo in people with pollen allergy. Unfortunately, there was no difference in allergy symptoms among the three groups of study participants. It was interesting, however, that nearly 1 in 3 of the volunteers dropped out of the study because they couldn’t tolerate eating one tablespoon of honey every day due to the overly sweet taste. There have been reports of people having severe allergic reactions to honey, possibly from the various pollen or venom components. More studies are needed to further investigate the possible benefits of honey for the treatment of allergies.

Honey-based products have been studied and approved for use in wound healing, of all things!